(Legacy Chat) Creating agents and departments

You need to create an account for each support agent who will be responding to chats. Depending on the size of your organization, you might also want to organize these agents into departments, such as Billing or Shipments, to more efficiently direct visitors to an agent who can help them.

Note that only one agent is available on Lite plans. Also note that departments are available only on Team, Professional, and Enterprise plans. Team plans are limited to two departments.

The processes described in this article apply to Legacy Chat users (Chat-only and integrated with Support). To determine which version you’re using, see Determining your Zendesk Chat account version.

This article includes the following topics:

• Creating and updating agents
• Creating a department

Creating and updating agents

Each Chat agent needs a dedicated account in order to respond to chats. Each account, in turn, is assigned a role (default or custom) that grants the agent certain permissions. For information on roles, see Understanding default roles in Zendesk Chat and Creating custom roles and assigning users.

This section contains the following procedures:

• To add an agent
• To update an agent's profile
• To delete an agent

To add an agent

1. Go to your dashboard and select Settings > Agents.
2. Click Add Agent.
3. Enter the requested details:

   

   • Agent Status: “Enabled” activates the agent upon creation; “Disabled” creates the agent without enabling them.

   • Name: The agent’s name.

   • Display Name: The name you want displayed when the agent is chatting with a visitor.

   • Email: The email address the agent uses to log into the dashboard.

   • Chat Limit: The number of chats the agent can take simultaneously.

   • Zendesk Support Email (integrated accounts only): The email address associated with your Zendesk Support account.

   • Skills: The agent’s capabilities. See Routing chats based on agent skills for information.

   • Role: The role assigned to the agent.

4. Click Create Agent. The new agent will receive the sign in details in an email and can start using Zendesk Chat right away.

Administrators can update an agent’s profile if needed. Note that the instructions here are for administrators editing another individual’s profile; to edit your own profile (whether you are an agent or administrator), see Editing your personal settings in Zendesk Chat.

To update an agent’s profile

1. Go to your dashboard and select Settings > Agents.
2. Click the entry for the agent you want to update.
3. Update the information as needed.
4. Click Save Changes.

To delete an agent

1. Go to your dashboard and select Settings > Agents.
2. Select the check box next to the agent or agents you want to delete.
3. Use the Actions drop-down menu at the top of the list to select Delete selected.
4. Click Delete on the confirmation window.

Creating a department

To create a department

1. Go to your dashboard and select Settings > Departments.
2. Click Add Department.
3. Enter relevant details, as shown in the screenshot below.

   

4. Click agent names to add them to the department.
5. Click Create Department.